![]() ![]() Because of the less-than-happy ending of that book, Kipling probably added ‘Mother o’ Mine’ to the beginning of the book as a way of saying sorry to his mother for having displeased her she’d have preferred the happy ending. This poem had a curious origin: the poem was published as a dedication to Kipling’s 1892 book The Light That Failed. Kipling’s poem is laden with symbolism: does this woodland road suggest a link to our own past (and our childhood), or to a collective past, which can now barely be revisited? Part of the poem’s power lies in its ambiguity. This poem sees a road through the woods being rediscovered, and the old significance of it being unearthed. ![]() One of the most oft-quoted poems from Kipling’s ‘Epitaphs’ is ‘Common Form’: ‘If any question why we died, / Tell them, because our fathers lied.’ Published in 1919, one year after the end of the First World War, these poems were inspired by The Greek Anthology, a collection of short anonymous poems (including many epitaphs designed for memorial inscriptions on tombs) dating as far back as the sixth century BC. ![]() What it was, and it might serve me in a time when jests are few. My son was killed while laughing at some jest. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |